Zero Dark Thirty
You can’t overhype the pedigree here, with Kathryn Bigelow reteamed with her Hurt Locker screenwriter Mark Boal and a cast that includes Jessica Chastain, Chris Pratt, and Mark Strong, taking on the events of the Bin Laden raid. Oh and look, it’s Kyle Chandler playing a government dude again. Oh Kyle Chandler, why do you love the government so? But I’m not gonna lie, I’m not sold on this. Can you name me a single example of a good movie that was made depicting events as recent as this? It takes time to digest history into nice, nuanced story. They couldn’t have made Argo in 1981. Maybe they’ll prove me wrong, but so far I’m seeing a lot of explosions and dramatic music without a lot of substantive content. Plus the title sounds like bad dialog from an interracial porno. “Come here, baby, you know what time it is. Aw yeah, girl, isss zero dark thirty.” (*schlong*)

Gangster Squad
It seems like a bad sign that a film originally supposed to open in September, with this much star power (Penn, Brolin, Baby Goose, AND Nick Nolte, are you kidding me?) and sexy content, is being dumped in the January season usually reserved for Season of the Witch. I’m wondering if Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland, 30 Minutes or Less) completely whiffed on the tone of the movie like he did on 30 Minutes or Less. (Yes, it was postponed because of the theater shooting, but why stick it in January dumping ground?). Putting Jay-Z in the trailer for a period piece also seems slightly desperate. That said, I’m almost certainly going to see it, because I’m a sucker for the idea of forties gangster Baby Goose.

Oh, a wise guy, eh? Boss, what say I take this joker in the back and give him a cup of cocoa.

Zero Dark Thirty: Agreed that normally “recent event” movies are better suited to the made for TV crowd. Like an NCIS special event. The scene with the special ops guys playing horseshoe made me think of the drinking buddy guy from Drinking Made Easy.

Gangster Squad: I’m confused because in general this looks like it would be pretty good. Especially with Brolin & Nolte (who also could have paired up for Looper). The Jessica Rabbit outfit does make me feel a bit like the whole thing is self aware. But otherwise I would hope this doesn’t dissapoint.

Gangster Squad was postponed from Sept to Jan because it has a scene at the end of the movie where they shoot up a movie theater. After the Aurora shooting in July Warner Brothers decided to re-shoot the ending of the movie. That is why it was delayed, not because the movie isn’t good.

Thank you. Hurt Locker was bullshit, maybe its because Im a vet but it rankled my fur something fierce that everyone was like “did you see Hurt Locker? It was so realistic and awesome. You gotta be fuckin kidding me. Bigelow should change the title to Zero Actual Credibility.
Maybe in five years we can do a Bin Laden movie with proper gravitas, but right after the fact with Bigelow involved? Just more exploitative bullshit.

Gangster Squad would be more encouraging if they hadn’t cast Sean Penn as Mickey Cohen. Putting a dumb prosthetic on an actor is generally an indication that he has been miscast. But then, it must have been tough to find an actor who could play a Jewish guy. And putting Andy Serkis in the green ping pong ball suit is expensive.

I’m not likely to see “Zero” for several reasons. First off, it’s clearly a shameless topical cash grab, these are rarely good. See “W.” for more on this (don’t see “W.”). Also, almost every movie made on the current wars has sucked. For every “Hurt Locker” I’ll raise you every other movie made. Movies about important historical events usually need some distance between the event and its depiction in film. Not always, but it does seem like people in Hollywood were on the phone within hours of Osama’s death trying to put together a movie about something that literally just happened.

I’m holding out for Gangster Squad, lots of good actor’s and hopefully Sean Penn gets shot in the face.

Kyle Chandler does have a propensity to play government men. He also has a propensity for being blown up to smithereens or Pink Mist (Grey’s Anatomy, The Kingdom). Here’s hoping we don’t get both of these types in the same movie.

Question is what kind of super relevant story you’re supposed to get out of killing bin Laden anyway. How about a movie that shows how they fucked up for 10 years not finding him?

Doing one so soon is most certainly opportunistic, but what nuances are you supposed to get out of it with time? It’ll be your standard CIA/SpecOps action a la Tom Clancy, except historically accurate or something.